Sealed Away
by RyukoVulpix
Summary: Sonic Adventure, told from Tikal's point of view. What happened after she found the shrine... and Chaos.


**Sealed Away**

.

.

.

My name is Tikal... and I can see through his facade...

He's so sad... and angry...

My own father... the Chief of my Echidna tribe...

It happened generations ago, but it stings, as if it happened only yesterday...

It happened quite on accident... A locked away place, and I just stumbled onto it.

I saw small creatures, the likes of which I had never seen before.

So tiny... so innocent... They played cheerfully around a large, stone shrine, which contained, at the center, a huge, shimmering jewel, even taller than I was.

I knew I had entered a serene, sacred place.

The words that my late grandmother had said came to me...

_The servers are the seven Chaos._

_Chaos is power, power is enriched by the heart._

_The controller is the one who unifies the Chaos..._

Surrounding the great Emerald were seven pillars, each with its own Emerald, in seven different colors. I knew... these were the Chaos Emeralds of legend.

And the one in the center...

... was the controller of the seven Chaos.

My grandmother's poem, come to life.

I knew that I could never let my father, Pachacamac, take over this place. He would say it was for the better of the tribe. But I saw it only as greed. He wanted power, the tribe wanted power. They wanted power, riches, strength...

In his quest to obtain these wicked things, my father had caused war, fighting...

... things I despised. He had made many countries submit to his rule...

Things _were_ good for us in that time... We had anything we could want.

Our city was large, and very powerful...

... yet I could not help but feel that it was all false, that nothing there had anything beyond its grand exterior.

It made such a large difference when I visited the Shrine to the Emeralds. There, everything was at peace... everything had meaning. True, there was nothing extremely fancy... it was only a simple stone shrine, with water flowing around it...but in its simplicity, it found true beauty...

And the small creatures, Chao, had everything they could ever want. I would sit there for hours, watching them, playing with them.

And it was during one of those visits that I met _him..._

I was surprised when I first met the guardian of the Chao. As I grew closer to the small inhabitants of the area, I sensed a being close by... not a Chao... not an echidna...

I was almost paralyzed with shock when it rose from the fountain. It was a water-creature, with large, green eyes... At first, he was wary, but after seeing how the Chao trusted me, he warmed up. His exterior looked tough... but I could see that he had a warm heart.

Chaos...

... a being made of pure, perfect water...

He was the lone guardian of the Chao and of the Emeralds.

I genuinely hoped that no harm would ever come to him or this place

However...

... my father soon found it too, and he made plans for its capture.

I begged him not to. It wasn't right that such a place should be stained with war...

... but there was no changing his mind... no warming of his stone heart.

He wouldn't listen to me, a child...

... even though I was his own daughter.

One night, I knew that my father and the tribe's warriors were getting ready to attack the shrine. I ran out before them and reached the shrine first. I stood in their path. My father ordered me to get out of the way. I pleaded, again, for them to leave the place in harmony.

However... my words were in vain. The Chao, huddled around my legs, trembled in fear. And then, although it must have only lasted a few seconds...

_The ground shook with the pounding of the warriors' feet..._

_I was thrown backwards as they plowed through me._

_The Chao were strewn about, crying out in pain._

_I cried..._

_... for the Chao..._

_... for the shrine..._

_... for the trouble that was sure to befall everyone..._

And then... Chaos appeared.

But he was not the Chaos I knew.

This Chaos, instead of being warm and gentle, was filled with a burning rage, an anger... a vengeance. I stared in horror as he absorbed the power of the Chaos Emeralds. He changed drastically... his power increased dramatically...

_I watched as he destroyed my people..._

... this was not my friend...

... this was a monster...!

He soon began to leave, going in the direction of the city...

As much as I hated many of my people's values, I couldn't abandon my loved ones, those who had brought me up since my childhood... I couldn't deny my loyalty to my home...

I turned to the one Emerald left... the large one. I begged it to stop him... for the good of the entire world...

I knew that the Emeralds could change our thoughts and feelings into power...

I saw Chaos return...

The large Emerald, the Master Emerald, drained the power of the Chaos Emeralds that was in Chaos. The seven Chaos Emeralds returned to their forms and scattered for miles around. Chaos returned to his first form, but he was still furious at my people.

But he didn't have a chance to exact any more revenge on them.

The Master Emerald shone with a huge flash of light...

... then...

Chaos was sucked into the Master Emerald... along with myself. It felt as though my very soul was being torn from my body. My life force began to flow through the Master Emerald, along with Chaos'.

Our bodies disappeared somewhere, and our energy seeped everywhere through the Emerald...

_... and there we stayed..._

Time never stopped flowing, always one second at a time... a minute... an hour... a day... a month... a year... a decade...

I truly became one with the Master Emerald. But I could always feel Chaos, his heart beside mine...

Unfortunately... I could also still feel the freezing fire of his cold fury. But I knew that as long as the Master Emerald stayed as one, we would be one with it, too. To ensure this, I called upon all the strength I could summon. Using the Master Emerald's power, I lifted the shrine and the land it was on into the sky. I felt some beings still on this... this floating island. I could not see them... but I felt their presence. Eventually, they came up to the shrine. I did not sense any greed or darkness in their hearts. And I knew... ...these were the new guardians of the Master Emerald.

As long as they protected the Emerald, and as long as the Emerald stayed in the heavens, I felt that it would forever be safe... one and whole. As long as the Emerald stayed safe, Chaos... and I... would never escape. I felt that the price was worth it.

But this was not to be.

.

.

.

It was yet another day...

... but then, something went drastically wrong...

I felt a splitting of my very being...

It felt as if... as if I were being broken...

When it was over, I felt alone...

... as if... as if...

... there was no one there...

I realized... I was a spirit.

My body was gone... but my life force was still there.

I appeared as a small orb of pure energy...

_... but beside me_

_just the same as the day he'd been sealed away_

_was Chaos._

I saw the person who had committed the crime of shattering the Emerald.

And I also saw... an echidna...

... just one.

No more.

The lone descendant of my people...

In his eyes, I saw the spirit of one made to grow up too fast, too soon...

Young and wild, but mature for his age...

I watched helplessly as Chaos was taken by the other person... the one who broke the Master Emerald.

In his heart and eyes, I felt the same longings as I had felt in my father.

Greed for power... darkness...

I looked at the young echidna. He was shocked. His entire life had been dedicated to protecting the Master Emerald... He stood his ground with strength as the island plunged downward. He looked back at the shrine once... then left to find the shards.

I followed him closely...

Then, one by one, I met the others whose lives were to be tangled into this web that had been woven so many centuries ago...

I could not change back to my old body... it took far too much energy, energy that could be used to help these people.

I took them all into the past to show them what had happened...

... but I could not hope for them to change it.

I could only help them to change the future.

.

.

.

_The battles ensued for days to come._That mad doctor, Eggman, countered them, all of them, very powerfully, in the same way that my father had, the same way that my father had met his demise...

I knew them all quite well by this time. Sonic, Tails, Amy, Big, Knuckles, even one of Eggman's robots, E-102 Gamma... they all strove to protect the peace. But eventually... Eggman's plans were destroyed by Chaos himself...

Chaos had the Chaos Emeralds... all of them. A monster was about to be unleashed on this Earth... just as it almost had been years before...

The sky became dark with clouds, as if a storm were about to ensue. But no one could know what kind of horror was about to befall them...

Perfect Chaos attacked the city called Station Square... Water rushed throughout it, completely flooding the land... It poured through their underground sewers, through the roads, from the buildings...

Terrified, the humans ran for higher ground. The city was almost completely destroyed...

... their homes were gone...

A feeling of sadness and despair hung thick, like the dark, formidable clouds in the sky.

But to my enormous relief, Sonic came to the city, along with his friends. We all watched as Chaos finished absorbing the Chaos Emeralds' power. They fell to the earth, seemingly drained of power, their bright, vibrant colors faded...

I came to Sonic... and he recognized me from the visions I had given him.

With the strength that came with the knowledge that someone knew who I was, I returned to my body.

To Sonic, I said that Chaos had to be sealed away, now... but the brave hedgehog had a different idea.

He saw what I didn't... he saw that no matter how long Chaos was sealed away, the pain in him would never die.

And I saw that someday, someone might come looking for him again. They would release him... and the story would start over.

I knew the time was now.

Sonic's friends gathered the dull forms of the Chaos Emeralds. Despite their appearance, they still had energy left. Perfect Chaos had only used the negative forces. The only power left in the Emeralds now was pure light energy... positive energy.

_What I saw can only be described as a miracle..._

His formerly bright blue fur became a metallic gold, and his laid-back green eyes became a hot red. His feet floated a few inches off the ground, and his entire body was surrounded by a warm, golden aura...

All of us watching could feel his determination and strength... and we all held our breath as Super Sonic took on the mighty Perfect Chaos.

His speed was incredible... He flew so fast, he appeared to be nothing more than a streak of lightning...

I remembered everything that had led up to this point... my city, my friends, the tears that had been shed over this battle, this battle of a thousand years...

A battle that I hoped would finally free Chaos from his grief...

Perfect Chaos appeared and reappeared all over the city, but Super Sonic was always right there, ready to attack.

His power never let up for a moment...

Everything I wished for...

... for the world to be protected...

... for Chaos to be happy...

... for a safe future...

It all relied on this...

.

.

.

_Can't hold on much longer...  
(But I will never let go)  
I know it's a one way track  
(Tell me now how long this'll last)  
I'm not gonna think this way  
(Nor will I count on others)  
Close my eyes and feel it burn...  
Now I see what I've gotta do_

_Open your heart... and you'll see..._

.

.

.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Perfect Chaos started to wear down...

... but Super Sonic was too.

He was running out of time... his form couldn't hold much longer...

But, as we looked at him, we knew...

... he would never let us down.

_There was too much at stake here._

His own determination and stubbornness is what carried him through.

Time seemed to stop as we saw Chaos slip away into the water...

Super Sonic touched down lightly near us...

... his golden aura faded... his fur changed to blue...

Tired, beaten, but thoroughly happy, he smiled at us.

The Chaos Emeralds, colorful as they had been, fell to the ground.

Chaos, in his original form, stood before us.

In him, I felt a sense of regret...

... regret that he had come so close to destroying what he had been protecting.

I stood in front of him. I watched as small figures made their way out of the wreckage of the city... toward their protector.

The same little Chao that had lived so many years before... the people of this city had become close to them. Chaos looked at them gently.

He turned to look at me.

I waved farewell to the young saviors of the world.

Chaos and I rose into the air to return to Angel Island...

... where our spirits shall protect it...

... always.

.

.

.

_Fin_


End file.
